Fissures and Phone Calls from Worlds Away
by Kalajorn
Summary: What if at the end of "Dipper and Mabel vs the Future" the rift had broke while Mabel was out in the woods before Bill arrived? What will happen to Mabel alone in the Multiverse? Will Stan, Dipper and Ford be able to get her back? Tune in to find out.
1. Chapter 1

Mabel wasn't sure how far she ran before she collapsed at the base of a tree. Her back pressed against its rough bark as she pulled her knees up tightly against her chest. She rocked a little, trying to sooth her turbulent emotions, before reaching into her backpack.

"Only party chocolate can cheer me up now," She mumbled.

Instead of what she was expecting her fingertips brushed a smooth glass shape. Puzzled, Mabel reached in a little farther and pulled it out. It was some sort of sci-fi snow globe.

 _I must have grabbed Dipper's pack,_ She realized.

It was beautiful. Instead of fake snow drifting in water, in the center of the globe was what looked like a miniature galaxy. It swirled and danced before her eyes, rebounding off the glass of the container. It changed colors as it moved, pulsing like a tiny heart. It was hypnotizing and she couldn't bring herself to look away, her fight with Dipper forgotten for a moment. Mabel noticed a little crack in the glass. Slowly she reached out and touched it. As soon as her finger made contact, the crack spread, branching out like a spider web from where she touched it. The star-speckled darkness began to move rapidly like an angry swarm of bees.

Mabel let out a yelp of surprise and dropped the globe. Before she could let go, the dark mass moved up her arm. Mabel screamed. Her heart beat frantically in her ears. She tried to shake it off, but it didn't work, it seemed to be soaking into her skin. Pain lanced through her body and she screamed again. A hum filled her ears and the world blurred around her. There was a lurch in her gut like an elevator moving. Everything spun and then…

The little clearing in the woods was empty of life.

* * *

With a heavy heart Dipper walked into the lab.

"Let me guess: Mabel didn't take it well?" Great uncle Ford asked. His brows wrinkled as he studied Dipper's expression. A sympathetic frown appeared on his face.

Dipper sighed and rubbed his head.

"I don't know, maybe I'm making the wrong decision," Dipper said, All he could think of was the Mabel's tears before she threw his hand off and ran away. They had fought before, but this was different. "I need to think about this."

Great Uncle Stanford nodded in understanding.

"Dipper, right now we need to focus on the mission," He pulled the piece alien tech they had found out of his pocket, gave Dipper a smile, and said, "Now come on, I've got the glue; hand me the rift and let's make history."

Dipper smiled a little at Ford's dramatic speech. He reached into the bag and pulled out…

A birthday flier?

"What? Oh no! The RIFT!" Dipper yelled.

This was Mabel's backpack. If he had hers that meant that she had the rift. His heart twinged painfully as adrenaline and fear coursed through him. He grabbed the walkie talkie out of the pack and started fiddling with it as he bolted up the stairs. He could hear Ford's heavy footsteps trailing behind him.

When they made it out of the house Dipper started calling Mabel frantically with the walkie talkie. There was no answer, only static.

Faintly he heard Stanford calling his name, but he didn't pay any attention. He ran down the road in the direction Mabel had gone.

The sky was turning an ominous red as the sun dipped behind the cliffs. Goose bumps appeared on Dipper's arms even as he panted for breath from his exertion. The forest was a blur around him. He had to find Mabel. Before something happened.

He was going so fast that he didn't notice the glass shards on the ground until his foot hit one. At the sound of the glass crunching, Dipper skidded to a halt, almost falling over. He spun around and felt his breath catch in his throat.

The shattered rift was lying on the ground and beside it was Mabel's headband. With shaking hands Dipper picked it up, then turned to look at Great Uncle Ford who was just coming to a halt beside him.

"What happened?" He whispered, for once not caring that his voice cracked.

When he had rescued Ford from the UFO he had felt like a hero, like he could take on the world and come out on top, but now he felt like a small child again; helpless, waiting for the grownups to swoop in and fix things. He just wanted his sister back safe. He had a bad feeling about this.

Ford knelt down beside him and examined the shattered globe. Carefully he turned it over in his large six fingered hands. His brow furrowed and he adjusted his glasses slightly. After a moment he shoved it into one of his trench coat's pockets and sighed. The sun vanished completely and the world fell into twilight.

"I don't know, Dipper," He said finally. His face was difficult to make out in the darkness. "It appears the rift shattered, but for some reason Weirdmaggedon did not happen. It is most likely that the rift used its energy to…"

Stanford cut off midsentence at Dipper's stricken expression. Gently he rested a hand on his nephew's shoulder.

"We'll find Mabel," Great Uncle Ford said firmly.

Dipper took a step forward. He wrapped his arms around his uncle's waist and started crying. The summer wasn't supposed to end like this. Mabel was supposed to be safe and happy. Not… Not…

Ford wrapped his arms around him and held him firmly as he shook like a leaf. The only thing Dipper was truly aware of was his sister's headband held tightly in his hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Mabel felt awful. Kind of like when she ate too much candy and passed out. She let out a little groan and rolled to her hands and knees. Her eyes felt sandy. She blinked a few times before opening them. She took a deep breath and looked around.

The world around her was like nothing she had ever seen before; buildings and chunks of land floated through the air. The sky was a swirl of colors, but not in a pleasant way. It bothered her eyes to look at it too long. Shifting into a crouch she looked behind her and found that she was in the entrance to some form of alley between two structures. Things would occasionally move in the shadows and objects she could not identify littered the ground.

"Where am I," Mabel whispered, nervously grabbing her hair with one hand.

Her other hand brushed something. Mabel looked and saw Dipper's bag beside her. She grabbed it quickly, almost afraid that it would disappear. She opened the top to see what was still inside. There were the snacks, pens, notebooks, duct tape, a birthday flier, and walkie talkie that she had packed for Dipper as well as some sort of sci-fi gun thingy.

 _I wonder what that does,_ Mabel thought reaching for it curiously.

She flinched and withdrew her hand as the ground suddenly began to shake. Mabel scurried farther back into the alley, deciding that she would rather face whatever was in there than whatever was coming. She kept still and quiet as what looked like a giant purple loaf of bread with a party hat walked by followed by a pair of teeth with legs. After a moment they vanished from sight and the vibrations from their footsteps ceased.

Shaking a little, Mabel reached into the backpack and pulled out the walkie talkie. She was fairly certain it wouldn't work, but it was worth a try anyway.

* * *

Dipper followed Stanford blindly back to the shack, occasionally stumbling over a root or stone in the darkness. The lights were on when they arrived, a warm glow of yellow seeping out through the clouded windows.

The door creaked open and Stan appeared silhouetted against the light.

"Bout time you got home," He said. "Dinner's about as cold as a rock."

He paused and glanced at them, leaning forward a little. He gave a low whistle.

"You two look awful. Did you guys get attacked by another nerd game?"

He laughed at his own joke, but paused looking confused at their lack of reaction. He cleared his throat rather awkwardly.

"So… Have you seen Mabel?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.. "I thought she was out with you two."

Dipper clenched the headband tighter in his hand and guilt welled up in his chest. He hung his head and looked away.

Great Uncle Ford stepped forward and said in a subdued voice, "She's gone."

"What da ya mean?" Stan asked slowly.

"Why don't we go sit down inside and I'll explain," Ford said carefully, holding his hands out in a placating gesture.

Stan did not budge from the doorway. He crossed his arms and stared his brother down, shoulders tense.

Great Uncle Ford sighed.

"We don't know for sure," He said, pulling on his fingers. "When you opened the portal it produced a rift. I contained it, but the glass of the containment device was cracking. Dipper and I had acquired the materials to fix it, but Mabel accidently took Dipper's pack. The best I can tell she accidently broke it. It is highly probable she is in another dimension now."

He adjusted his glasses and there was a tense silence before Grunkle Stan let out a strangled sound and then said, "I told you to keep the weirdness away from the kids so they didn't get hurt."

"I know," Ford said softly, shoving his hands deep into his pocket.

He didn't dodge the left hook that Stan threw at him. The punch caught him square in the jaw and sent him stumbling back a pace or two.

Without any further acknowledgement of Ford, Stan turned to Dipper and dropped to one knee so he could look him in the eye.

"How are you holding up?" He asked. His voice was gruff, but his hand was warm and solid on Dipper's shoulder.

"I'm fine," Dipper lied, toying with Mabel's headband.

Stan noticed the movement and his gaze shifted down and then back up to Dipper's face. Wordlessly he pulled his nephew into tight hug before standing up.

"Come on," He said turning part way toward the door. His voice was laced with fake cheer. "Let's get some supper into you."

Dipper glanced back and watched as Great Uncle Ford rubbed his cheek and then sat down heavily on the couch. His head dropped into his hands and he sat there quietly. He turned away and followed Grunkle Stan into the house.

As he picked at his dinner, Stan disappeared into the other room and returned with a pile of notebooks. He dropped them on the table and sat down with a sigh.

"It's a good thing I didn't throw these out like I was planning to," He commented.

Silence reigned for a while, then the front door creaked open and Great Uncle Ford joined them at the table. He set the familiar red journals alongside Stan's notebooks.

"How long did it take you to get that portal up and running the first time?" Stan asked without preamble.

"About a year with Bill and Fiddleford's help," Stanford said.

Stan grimaced.

"That's too long," He said. "Any way we can speed this up?"

As Stan and Ford talked. Dipper abandoned his plate and slunk upstairs. He collapsed on Mabel's bed. This didn't feel quite real. Some part of him was sure that she would pop out from some corner yelling, "surprise!", but he knew she was gone. If he was truly honest, he didn't even know if she was still alive. Great Uncle Ford hadn't said anything, but he had noticed the hesitance.

He glared at the walkie talkie peeking out from Mabel's bag as if staring hard enough would bring her back.

Suddenly it let out a burst of static and Dipper almost fell of the bed.

"Dipper? Dipper are you there? Can you hear me?... over." Mabel's voice filtered through the crackle of the static.

Dipper shot forward and grabbed the walkie talkie in shaking hands. He pressed down the button and said, "Yes! I can hear you Mabel. Where are you? Over."

He released the button and waited for a response.

"Great Uncle Ford, Grunkle Stan!" He yelled.

He heard their footsteps coming up the stairs as the device crackled to life again.

There was a sigh and Mabel said, "Figures it wouldn't work…"

 _Wait… What?_

"I'm here," Dipper said desperately into the walkie talkie. "Mabel? Mabel!"

The door knob turned and Great Uncle Ford and Grunkle Stan entered.

"Are you all right, Kid?" Stan asked.

"It's Mabel," Dipper said.

Stan and Ford were beside him in an instant.

"Here is she?" Stan asked urgently.

"I don't know. She can't hear me on her end apparently," Dipper said.

The walkie talkie crackled again and everyone went silent.

"I'm so scared, Dipper," Mabel said with a little hiccup. "I miss you already. This place is weird, but not in a good way." There was another hiccup, followed by a sniffle. "Anyway, I'm going to try to find somewhere to sleep. I'll talk to you later bro-bro."

The line went silent.

"Don't go," Dipper said frantically. "I'm here. I miss you too. Please Mabel!"

It was no use.

* * *

That night, after his two uncles forced him to go to bed, Dipper lay curled up with the walkie talkie. If his twin called again he didn't want to miss it.

He was lying on Mabel's bed staring into the darkness when he heard a little grunt. He looked over the side of the bed and saw Waddles staring up at him.

"She's not here," he told the pig.

Waddles set a hoof on the bed and kept staring at him.

"Fine, you can join me, but just for tonight."

The swine needed no further invitation; he was up on the bed in a moment. Dipper rolled over a little to accommodate his bulk. He ended up putting on arm around the pig to get comfortable.

It was actually kind of nice to have Waddles with him, Dipper realized after a moment. The warmth beside him was comforting. His eyelids drifted closed a little and he pinched himself, he needed to stay awake in case Mabel called. Waddles wiggled a little bit and Dipper looked up to see the pig staring at him. It let out a questioning oink.

"I miss her too," He said with a sigh.

Waddles let out another oink and squirmed a little closer. The pig gave his face a sloppy wet lick. Dipper shoved him away, but felt a small smile form on his face.

"Quit it Waddles."

He was cut off by a large yawn. His eyelids were so heavy. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to close them for just a second.

"I'm not going to sleep," he told Waddles with another yawn.

He let his eyes drift closed. After a moment the exhaustion of the day, mental and physical, overcame him and Dipper fell into a deep dreamless sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Something didn't feel right. Dipper pulled the blanket tighter around him and tried to push away the drowsiness to figure out what it was.

Something moved behind him. Dipper let out a squawk of surprise and rolled away from it, attempting to get off his bed to assess what matter of creature had joined him while he slept. He slammed into a wall and lay still for several moments, holding his nose and silently screaming in pain.

There was a little inquisitive grunt behind him and something licked his ear.

"Waddles?"

Dipper rolled over and saw the pig's beady black eyes staring into his own. The events of the previous day hit him with all the force of a sledge hammer to the gut.

Mabel…

Dipper began shaking. His breathing sped up and he clenched his hands into the blankets trying to steady himself. He felt like he was going to throw up.

Waddles pushed his head against Dipper's chest and he jerked in surprise. He wrapped his arms around the creature and held on for dear life until the shaking subsided.

"Thanks," He whispered, feeling a little stupid talking to a pig.

Dipper doubted he was going to fall back asleep, so he grabbed the walky talkie and slipped downstairs. Maybe he could look through great uncle Ford's journal and see if there was anything that might help get Mabel back.

When he made it downstairs to his surprise the kitchen light was still on. Dipper froze just outside of the ring of light.

Inside the kitchen he could hear Grunkle Stan and Great Uncle Ford talking. Dipper crouched down and tried to quiet his breathing so he could hear what they were saying.

"…I going to call their parents tomorrow," Stan was saying.

There was a thump as Ford dropped the book he had been looking through in surprise.

"What!?"

Dipper peered around the corner a little farther. Grunkle Stan's shoulders were slumped and his head was bowed. The wrinkles his face were more prominent than Dipper had ever seen them. He seemed defeated, like when Gideon had taken over the Mystery Shack and he had desired to send the twins home.

"You can't just give up," Ford said, his tone incredulous.

Grunkle Stan's head turned sharply and he snapped, "I'm not giving up."

The kitchen light glinted harshly in his narrowed eyes before he sighed slumped forward again.

"I'm just not enough of an idiot to believe we can create a portal to another world in less than a week."

Grunkle Stan rubbed his temples with his thumb and index finger.

"If there's anything I've learned over the years it's that the longer you wait to give someone the bad news the worse they will take it." Ford's shoulder's stiffened at that statement and his eyes searched his brother's face. Stan paid him so heed and continued. "No doubt they'll never let me see Dipper again, but at least they might hear me out about Mabel and give me a chance to try to find her before they sick the cops on me…"

He trailed off.

Stanford's hand lifted off the table for a second and then was lowered to his knee where it clenched and unclenched nervously.

"But it wasn't soley your fault that she got the rift. I'm also to blame," Stanford said slowly.

Grunkle Stan's gaze shot up to Ford's face and then he barked out a harsh laugh.

"It doesn't matter… When has it ever mattered?" He asked.

He ran his fingers over the bandage on the back of his right hand.

"The fact if they trusted me with their kids and now their daughter is missing."

He leaned forward and rested his head in his hands.

"If only I had sent those kids back home before I started that dammed portal up this would never have happened… but since when was I ever able to do anything right?"

Stanford's hand lifted off the table again and hovered in the air for a few seconds as he watched his brother. Eventually he grabbed his left arm with it and looked away.

Dipper couldn't stand to hear any more of the conversation and crept swiftly back upstairs.

Waddles looked at him curiously as he shakily closed the door behind him. He knelt down and hugged the pig tightly.

"Don't worry I'll get her back," Dipper told the swine firmly.

He started packing the backpack Mabel had left. There was no way he was going back home without his sister.


End file.
